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Prelude to Light |
There are several logical arguments that would extinguish the Roman Church's heretical doctrines concerning Mary's Immaculate Conception and the continuing "sinless" and "ever virgin" Mary. The so called Immaculate Conception of Mary has no basis what so ever in scripture in the genealogy of Jesus Christ as the Last Adam, for it does not meet the Just criteria of Holy God Almighty. The first Adam of God's genetic creation of Man, male and female, failed in their Love of God, and the Spirit of God left them to their own desires of self rule. The second and last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, had to be of the earthly genetic flesh of the fallen first Adam, but He was conceived by the Spirit of God, to fulfill God's Covenant Promise that the seed of Woman would crush the head of Satan. The first Adam/Man was made in the image and likeness of God, and in Adam's desire to be independent of God, the likeness of God in His Spirit, left Adam and his wife/Ishshah. Now in God's justice the Second Adam was to be of the needful earthly flesh of Adam, as the Son of Man, but the Saving Christ of God was conceived in the Likeness of God by the Spirit of His Father God. The Last Adam, the Son of Man, would overcome the desires of His human flesh, and would satisfy God's justice against rebelliousl Man/Adam, and would become for humanity, a Life giving Spirit, born of the Spirit of His Father Yahweh God Almighty. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (1st Corinthians 15 verse 45 thru 47.) The Genetic lineage of Jesus the Christ of God can be considered in this beginning link The Women in Christ's Genealogy and followed in subsequent chapters.
Now using simple logic, if the Blessed Mary was forever a virgin, then she would have sinned against her husband Joseph in not permitting him his conjugal rights to his Jewish wife. From the beginning, the betrothals would have understood the natural relationship between a man and woman, and would naturally come together within their God ordained marriage. Otherwise Joseph, the husband would be left ever stewing in his own manhood and lust, while Mary would be reveling in her super piety. Also, with the birth of the Lord's Christ Child, then Mary's maiden head would have naturally been broken. The proof of her previous virginity in the conception of the incarnate Christ child would have been annihilated forever. Therefore, it is impossible for Mary to be physically ever virgin with the vaginal birth of her first born Son, the Christ of God.
Now, according to the Roman church's false dogma, Joseph had children from a previous marriage prior to his betrothal to Mary. If that were so, then why were the children not with Joseph, when Joseph and Mary, who was heavy with the Christ Child, went to Bethlehem for the Roman tax census? (Luke 2 verse 1 thru 7, Douay-Rheims.) Certainly, Joseph's so called prior children from a previous marriage, would also, of necessity, have come with Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem for the Roman census. Also, note worthy, is that after the marriage at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine, John makes a distinction between Christ's half brother's and His disciples as he continues in his written account: After this He (Jesus) went down to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples: and they continued there not many days. (See John 2 verse 11 thru 12.) John, the apostle, who would know the Truth of his Master, makes a distinction between the Lord's natural half brothers, born of his mother Mary and her husband Joseph, and that which would be His present disciples or followers. Not withstanding, two of the brother's of Jesus were also His disciples, both James and Jude, with Jude later called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus.
The distinction between brothers and sisters continues in the Gospel of Mark. Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Jude, and Simon? Are not also his sisters here with us? And they [the many of the synagogue] were offended with him. (See Mark 6 verse 1 thru 3.)
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus makes a further distinction between His disciples and that of His chosen apostles: And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called unto Him His disciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles; 1Simon, (whom He also named Peter,) and 2Andrew his brother, 3James and 4John, 5Philip and 6Bartholomew, 7Matthew and 8Thomas, 9James the son of Alphaeus, and 10Simon called Zelotes, And 11Judas the brother of James, and 12Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor. (Luke 6 verse 12 thru 16.) James and his brother Jude, were both the half brothers of Jesus Christ through their natural parents Mary and Joseph. James was not named by the Lord as one of His apostles, meaning one that is sent, but nevertheless, James was a follower of his Brother, Jesus the Christ of God. After our Lord's crucifixion death, James would remain a principle in Jerusalem.
Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they [the women] came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. Upon finding the tomb empty, two men in shining garments reminded them of all that Jesus had said. And they remembered His Words, And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. (See Luke 24 verse 1 thru 10.) Mary, the mother of James her son, obviously went to the tomb of Jesus Christ, and the the principle reason was to see to the proper care of the Body of her first born incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ is risen, just as He had said!
The Scriptures give witness to the Truth.
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1st Timothy 2 verse 3 thru 6.)
Now by God's gift of faith we know in the Truth of the Word of God that the Lord Jesus Christ has given Himself a ransom for all of humanity, then it stands to reason that all that are venerated in the Roman and Eastern Church, even Blessed Mary, the Lord's earthly mother of Adam's flesh, and including the least of the saints, they are all saved out of sin and death by their Savior, Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of Man. St Augustine, a Doctor of the Roman Church writes in his arguments against Faustus: "Christ's body was derived from Adam, for His mother the Virgin Mary was a child of Adam."
Yes, the virgin Mary was a child of Adam in the absolute details of her genetics that were pure going back generationally to the seed of Ishshah Woman, the name of Adam's wife before he called her Eve. So then Mary, in the flesh of the first Adam, was subject to the self idolatrous nature of sin, which is innate to fallen flesh, for the flesh of humanity has its roots in the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. And in the garden, the serpent said unto (Ishshah) Woman, "You shall not surely die: You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil". Augustine calls Adam and Eve's treasonous act, the original sin, and now that rebel nature resides in the individual self of all of humanity. The nature of all sin is centered in self idolatry, with the breeding of little god's of self determining will, centered in self fulfillment, thereby putting themselves in opposition to the only Creator God of the living, and His Good and Holy Will for all of His creation. (See "The Mind of Man".)
Mary was no exception to the ingrained law of sin, resulting in death, for she was most assuredly acquainted with her self and her own determination of what she thought was good or evil. As good as she was, she was not perfect nor was she yet born of God's Spirit, although God's Spirit was with her and favored her in her generational faith in God's Covenant Word and Promised Messiah given in the Garden of Eden. The virgin Mary, like all women, was an offspring of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and a subject of her own judgment. So then Mary, the natural mother of Jesus Christ in the flesh, also would have been genetically numbered in the loins of Adam and Eve, and would be born a child of their fallen nature, and subject to the same self idolatrous disposition of sin and self rule that culminates in death. Even Blessed Mary, highly favored of God, went the way of all natural flesh, and her body died and was buried, and was not resurrected. In Christ our Savior, all who are born of His Spirit, and die are no longer encumbered with this body of death, but are liberated and glorified in the resurrection body of the Son of Adam, Jesus Christ, Who is the Son of God. Mary gave birth to the Son of Man/Adam, but Jesus gave birth to Mary, a child of God.
Without delving into Augustine's defense against Faustus, we can come to the same simple conclusion of Augustine, that "Christ's body was derived from Adam"; I doubt that Augustine had the slightest understanding of how precise that statement was, for God in fact would maintain the pure genetics of the first Adam in the seed of the Woman until the Christ of God would be born from that pure genetic seed of Adam. The genetic of the first Man Adam would be maintained by God and extended by Him through generations to the undefiled Adamic genetics of the virgin Mary.
Scripture bears this out, even as it was prophetically necessary for the fulfillment of God's precise salvation plan for mankind. For Christ in the flesh, was the absolute genetic Son of Adam, having derived through His natural mother Mary, His human lineage from King David of Israel, who was a son from the generational seed of faithful Abraham, whose genetics of Man is established within the loins of the first Man Adam and Eve, the mother of the life of mankind. So in the wonder of the incarnation, the Word of God the Father, became flesh. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
The Roman Catholic's dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, is an absolute distortion of the Gospel Truth, diluting the Salvation power of the incarnate WORD of GOD to save the race of man, by faith in Jesus Christ. The confusion makes Jesus Christ, the Son of Man to be less than the absolute Holy Representative between all of sinful mankind and that of Holy, Holy, Holy God Almighty. Jesus, the Christ and Word of God, was fully born the Son of Man, being the promised seed of a woman within the genetic lineage of the first man, Adam. The significance of the birth of God's Salvation in the flesh of man, was that Jesus Christ was also the only begotten and perfect Son of God, Who came down from above in humility, to be a willing sacrifice for the sins of humanity. In the perfection of His Love and obedience to His holy Father, Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and the Son of the Father, was raised from the dead, so that He alone can be the only Mediator between His Holy Father and for all those of lost humanity, who will call upon God in the Truth of the Good News that is the Gospel of our Salvation.
A right hermeneutical understanding of scripture, when combined with humanity's genetic sequencing from our first parents, completely negates the Roman Church's false doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. After Adam and Eve broke faith with God, God promised that the seed of a woman would crush the head of the serpent, even Satan. The lineage of the human genome must remain perfect in the generations of humanity for that to take place, and the Word of God to be True. Satan understood the validity of the Word of God and sought to destroy the fulfillment of that possibility with the contamination of the genetic seed of the woman, with his introduction of the seed of the fallen angelic sons of God - thereby contaminating the pure genetic seed of humanity. And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. (Genesis 6 verse 1 thru 2.) The infiltration was so complete that the cross breeding defilement of angels with human women would produce genetic offspring of gigantic proportions, with the defilement searing the conscience of mankind who were originally made in the image of God. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only continually evil. And God said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth: Both man and beast and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air for it repented Me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (Read the full account Genesis 6 verse 1 thru 8.) Noah was genetically perfect in all of the generations that came before him, and he lived in the faith of God. For up until the flood, the pure generations of man began with Adam, thru his son Seth, thru his son Enos, thru his son Cainan, thru his son Mahalaleel, thru his son Jared, thru his son Enoch, thru his son Methuselah, thru his son Lameck, and then until his son Noah. And after the flood that destroyed the wicked genetic crossbred offspring of Satan, then the perfect genetic lineage of man continued through the faithfulness of Noah, and then his son Shem, continuing genetically to Abram, the Son of Terah. And from the faithfulness of Abram, whom God named Abraham, came his promised son Isaac and his son Jacob, to the faith of David, to the faith of the virgin Mary, who was the chosen woman that was perfect in all her generations back to Adam.
This contrived doctrine of men is not necessary in God's justification through faith in the promise that God made in the Garden of Eden. Jesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith says to the religious unbelievers: Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad. (See Abraham believed God.) If Abraham believed the Lord in all of His Word, and it was counted to him for righteousness, then Mary, Abraham's genetic daughter and a seed of faith, received Gabriel's message by her justifying faith and trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and conceived in her womb the Savior of the world. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy Word. (See Luke 1 verse 26 thru 38.) For when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (See Galatians 4 verse 4 thru 5.) If Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of God was made of a woman from Abraham's genetic seed, and made to be under the law, then because of the flesh of His humanity derived from the woman, He was made subject to the Decalogue, which in Holy God's justice condemns all of sinful mankind to death. But, in God's mercy, Jesus Christ, Who did not commit sin, was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. (See 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17 thru 21.) Yeshuah haMachiac, Jesus the Christ of the Almighty, came in the Perfection of the Love of His Father, so that in the flesh of Adam, He might save humanity from the condemnation of the Decalogue. He that believes and in faith follows in the righteousness of the Lord's Christ, has passed from death into Life.
Now then, in God's plan of Salvation, the Eternal Father God, through His Holy Spirit fertilized the ovum or seed of a woman with the Light of His WORD of Salvation, and that holy zygote gestated in the womb of Mary, to become the Son of Man, Jesus the Christ. God formed the pattern of Life of His only begotten and eternal Son, into the genetic Y haploid instructions bearing the WORD of GOD, and through the Holy Spirit, came down from on high in humility, to be impregnated into the gamete or ovum of the virgin Mary, which contained all of her human DNA chromosomal instructions including the female X chromosome, to form a male child and to be born the Son of Man in the flesh. Christ Jesus was made male Y chromosome from the design after His Father God, and with the human female X chromosome from His mother Mary, Jesus became the last Adam, and the only representative of all of the males and females of all of humanity. But Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2 verse 5 thru 7.) Now, the genealogies of Mary and Joseph, with their Son Jesus Christ are they not recorded respectively in Luke chapter 3 and Matthew chapter1?
Again, we reiterate the scripture testimony: But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (See Galatians 4 verse 4 thru 5.) For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8 verse 3.) It was absolutely necessary for the Lord of Salvation to be subject to the natural desires of the flesh of man, otherwise He would have overcome nothing of the nature of self idolatrous sin that is innate to the flesh of man, for He would be God only, and subject to nothing. But Jesus Christ, as the Son of Man, was of the natural seed of Adam and Eve, and being made of the woman's seed, was born of the weakness of human flesh. Even as the prophetic former is true, Jesus was also the Seed of His Father, being born of the Power of the Love of God, and with His Perfect Love of His Father abiding as the Seed of God's Eternal WORD, He was able to overcome all things pertaining to the selfish desires of His flesh, and put the will of His Father always first. For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3 verse 16.) Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to aid them that are tempted. (Hebrews 2 verse 17 thru 18.) For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without [committing] sin. (Hebrews 4 verse 15.)
If God is Love within His infinite perfection, then Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, is God's Perfect Love that has entered this world to destroy sin in His flesh, and dispel the fear of death that has reigned in sin's confusion. Jesus Christ overcame the selfish nature of all flesh through His absolute self-less love of His Father and for the salvation of mankind, and because of His perfect Love, He has become the Lord our Righteousness. There is no fault or hint of sin in the Perfect Love of God, for the Lord's Christ came to do the will of His Father, and not the will of His own flesh that was born of Adam. Witness, that Jesus Christ in the beginning of His mental trial over the will of His flesh, remains totally faithful to His Father God as He prays: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” Humanity never comes to a complete understanding of the Love of our God that passes all human knowledge. That Love is lacking within the natural man, but was complete in Jesus Christ the only Begotten of the Father. Jesus is the Perfect Love of God the Father, and in humility He came to earth to do the perfect will of His Father, and that Love of Jesus needs to be in the hearts of all of the prodigal son's of Adam.
Humanity's dilemma is rooted in our own self idolatry, which reverts exclusively to the will of the individual flesh. The will of the flesh within our own minds, struggles with the good and the evil we have all derived from the Tree of Knowledge. Unfortunately, in our own self idolatry, we have not understood that the good and the evil came from the same solitary root of the idolatrous Tree, and our good and evil are inextricably linked together as one root within the self determination of the individual. As little gods, what is determined as good by one, may be considered evil to another. Every individual in humanity, justifies themselves with their own understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Those we may esteem as natural leaders are no doubt wise in their own eyes, and in their blind justification of an unjust cause, can lead others into their own paths of destruction. Wherefore, through the policies of men we have wars, rumors of wars, abortions, infanticide, genocide, murders and thefts, etc., and also the religious perversions of the Word of God through the justifying traditions of self centered men. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness. (See Job 5 verse 12 thru 14.) And again, The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours: (1st Corinthians 3 verse 19 thru 21.)
In the Spirit of understanding, the Apostle Paul cries out for our benefit: O wretched man that I am! Who shall save me from this body of death. We can rightly conclude with Paul that there is no distinction of persons where the nature of idolatrous sin is concerned. As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. (Romans 3 verse 10 thru 11 and verse 23.) Even All of the saved, are naturally born of the Adamic sin nature that leads to death, and this nature infects all of the flesh and innately remains in the flesh of us all, because we are all of the idolatrous seed of Adam and Eve. The proof being, that because of the will of sin in the flesh, we all die, and then with death the flesh of mankind will seek final corruption and return to the dust of the earth. And so, Paul writes of an eternal distinction. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin [that is yet present]. (See Romans 7 verse 24 thru 25.) Jesus Christ Who did not commit sin, but was made to be sin for us, died in His humanity on the cross, a sacrifice of Perfect Love for the sin of mankind. But glory be to God, for His Holy Spirit that dwelt with the Lord Jesus Christ did not suffer the corruption of the Righteous One, but raised Jesus Christ up from His death for our sin, and in so doing raised up the generations of the faithful within Him. Obviously, all of the saints, including Mary, have been born of the nature of selfish flesh, and so from the least to the greatest in Faith in Jesus Christ, they have all died in Jesus Christ, Who is the only Mediator between Holy God His Father and man. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under heaven given among men, where by we must be saved." so says Peter in Acts 4 verse 12. And Paul writes: "For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And Jesus died for all that those who live, might live no longer for themselves, but for Him Who for their sake died and was raised". (2nd Corinthians 5 verse 13 thru 15.)
In spite of the Apostle Peter's proclamation in Acts 4 verse 12, the Roman church for many years now, has thought to declare Mary as co-redemptress, over and above scripture, and even contradicts the Roman Church's declared 1st Pope, Peter himself. Again we quote Peter ex cathedra: "Because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died". All have died in Adam's rebellion of sin. The first Man, male and female, having the XY chomosomes of the physical first Man, was the only human created in the image and likeness of God. The Last Adam was birthed from the genetic seed of the Woman of Adam X chromosome, and conceived by the Spirit of His Father, Y Chromosome, and became the physical image of the invisible God, His Father, male and female. (See The First Adam, and the Last Adam.)
The absurdity concerning Mary's innate ability to help Jesus in the salvation of man, beyond her generational lineage, is blatant blasphemy against the Redeeming Blood of Jesus Christ that is one with the Holy Spirit of His Father God, and one with the perfection of Jesus Christ's Love that He alone had for His Father God, and also for lost mankind. The Redemption from sin and death of any person of faith is through the purchase price of the righteous Blood of Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, and none other.
You can witness the Roman Church's blatant misuse of scripture to solidify their claims for Mary by comparing the following correct passage from Genesis King James version to that of the Roman Catholic Douay Rheims version. King James Version: And the LORD God said unto the serpent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; it [her seed of Adam] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel. (Genesis 3 verse 15.) Now compare the above correct and theological constant Biblical interpretation with the false Douay Rheims version of Genesis 3 Verse 15: I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. The correct Scripture was God's first prophetic Word that portended the future virgin birth of a male child, which was annunciated again in Isaiah, and was fulfilled when the then Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of Man, and the expressed image of His Father, the invisible God Almighty. The Roman church has twisted this Hebrew scripture to make Mary a new Eve who would crush Satan's head rather than the correct interpretation of her seed of the first Adam, becoming Christ Jesus the Last incarnate Adam. Jesus the Word and Christ of God, would thoroughly defeat Satan, through His resurrection over sin and death through His Holy Sacrifice of His physical and Spiritual Life that is in His poured out Blood. Mary was the last Eve, in that her genetics were of the first Eve, and she bore in her womb and then gave birth to the Son of Man, being the only begotten of His Father Yahweh God, Who gives Life to all who believe.
God with His Word, is the Sustainer of the universe, and His Word sustained the generations of Adam's genetic seed through faithful men and women until the last generational seed of Adam was conceived in the womb of Mary, by the Holy Spirit of God, and became the Last Adam or seed of Man. Christ Jesus alone was the genetic seed of Adam by way of the Woman, and was the Seed of His Father conceived by the Spirit of His Father. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. (and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and Truth. (John 1 verse 14.) None of those faithful generations of Adam would be considered considered Co-redeemers, and neither would Mary, who in her virginity bore those generations of the seed of the Woman of Adam, Who would crush the head of evil corruption.
Witness another rebuttal that dispels this notion coming from the Word of God Himself. And it came to pass, as He [Jesus] spoke these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto Him, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked." But He [Jesus, the Word of God] said, "Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it." (See Luke 11 verse 23 through 28.)
Although the virgin Mary came to be the last Woman of Adam's seed to be chosen to bare the Son of God in the flesh of Adam, she understood her own need for God's Salvation as she proclaims her own belief, in what is called the Magnificat: My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. (See Luke 1 verses 46 thru 55.) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5 verse 12.) And so, even as it is appointed for all mankind to meet death because of the nature of idolatrous sin, we see that even Mary met her appointment with death. For there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. But now, we of faith in Christ Jesus are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3 verse 22 thru 24.) If Christ is not risen from the dead then our faith is vanity, and all are dead. (See 1st Corinthians 15 verse 13 thru15.)
For those of us who remain faithful to God on earth in this time, it is our righteous prayers and intercessions that are mediated only in the Name of Jesus Christ, and through Him by our gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit of the Living God. Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8 verse 26 thru 27.) Therefore, it is the members of the Body of Jesus Christ on this earthly plane, which must love one another enough, to pray for each other and the unsaved, through the mediation of the Holy Spirit, Who is to be in the very heart of each of the redeemed of God. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price [being the Holy Blood of Jesus Christ]. Therefore honor God with your body. If any man defile the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." (See 1st Corinthians 3 verse 16 thru 18 and 1st Corinthians 6 verse 19 thru 20.)
With our faith in our Great Savior, the Holy Spirit gives the living members of Jesus Body access to God's throne of Grace by the mediating Life Blood of Jesus Christ. For Jesus came and preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off, and peace to those who were near. For it is through Him that we both, whether far off or near, now have an introduction (or access) by one Holy Spirit to the Father, so that we are able to approach Him. (Ephesians 2 verse 17 thru 18 Amplified.) Now if we are able to approach Holy Father God through His Son, Jesus Christ, then what need is there to seek the intercession of the dead. Shall we not have in our hands, according to God's good will, the answers to our righteous intercessory petitions that are available in His Holy Name of Salvation and Life, rather than the deception of darkness.
But, apparently the schismatic Catholic Churches have forgotten that the battle is not against man, but against stealthy sin and the unseen powers that ministers rebellion and death to sinners. We, in our philosophical sophistication fall into unbelief, and in our blindness fail to heed the warning instructions and admonishments from Paul: Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (See full context Ephesians 6 verse 10 thru 18.)
From the Garden of Eden to the present, mankind is caught up in the idolatry of self, and the malignant lie of Satan continues to take form in our minds that we are like gods and can rule for ourselves with complete independence from the Supreme Ruler. Therefore, if we are like gods, then certainly we can idolize other men and women who are godlike examples, even as we desire to inflate ourselves. With idolatrous sin reigning in the mind of man, it then logically follows that religious mankind would say: Let us make deity after the brightness of our own image, and so it has been done. With idolatry in particular, the well rehearsed enemy of our souls is given an open invitation to interplay with the human community and stir up all kinds of confusion within the leadership and the people. If Israel, with its disobedience to the Covenant Commandments and the council of the God of the living, faced the severest of disciplinary sanctions from God, so as to turn them away from death, then likewise the unrepentant religious institutions of the Church has and will also face sanctions from Holy, Holy, Holy God, leaving them with the strength of the flesh of idolatrous men, with no way to turn except in repentance to the God of the Living.
"And they shall overcome the evil (accuser) by the BLOOD of the LAMB, and the Word of their testimony, and they loved not their life unto the death." (Revelation 12 verse 10.)
To proceed to the next chapter, please click on The Iconoclast verses the Iconodules.
Robert Glenn Pratten